He doesn't view strikeouts as bad. An out is an out is an out. Strikeouts are fine as long as they are getting on base, too. They did, however, have the 24th best OBP in the league. That, is not good.

Pretty much what I was thinking. The teams of the "Moneyball era" of a decade ago didn't strike out very much though, for what it's worth--middle of the pack in '02 and second fewest strikeouts in '03.

I got the feeling that the point of Moneyball was that Beane was looking to take advantage of market inefficiencies.

At the time, OBP was not considered to be as important as it is now - he looked for high-OBP players, knowing that they wouldn't have salary demands as high as more "traditional" players. Thus, he was able to field a competetive team at a lower cost than other teams. He also exploited the over-valuing of closers as a way of obtaining low-cost talent, but that doesn't get brought up as much as OBP.

Sabermetrics play into it as a way of analyzing players and helping to pinpoint those inefficiencies, but it's not the be-all, end-all, either. As more and more teams utilize the same methods - often with higher budgets, it becomes harder for Beane to work under the radar.

In some ways, the 2005 Sox team had some of that Moneyball feel, signing undervalued players (notably Dye, Pierzynski, Iguchi) to inexpensive contracts. Sure, KW's approach wasn't remotely as stat-based as Beane - his target were players that were considered risky for various reasons, not players who possessed a certain skill set - but the results speak for themselves.

He doesn't view strikeouts as bad. An out is an out is an out. Strikeouts are fine as long as they are getting on base, too. They did, however, have the 24th best OBP in the league. That, is not good.

I'm not sure if that is true or at least other SABR types may disagree. Each time that you put the ball in play you have an equal chance of reaching base safely. A player with a high BABIP may be getting lucky, but you don't have the chance to get lucky if you strike out.

I'm not sure if that is true or at least other SABR types may disagree. Each time that you put the ball in play you have an equal chance of reaching base safely. A player with a high BABIP may be getting lucky, but you don't have the chance to get lucky if you strike out.

But most don't view strikeouts as completely detrimental. Of course there are varying camps.